Five of the 32 victims in the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech University had ties to Southern Baptists.
Rachel HillRachael Hill, 18, was a freshman at Virginia Tech and was attending a French class at Norris Hall when she died at the hands of gunman Cho Seung-Hui. Hill graduated in 2006 from Grove Avenue Christian School, a ministry of Grove Avenue Baptist Church in Richmond, Va.
“Rachael was an incredible witness for Christ, the love of Christ shone through her to others,” according to Clay Fogler, the school’s administrator.
In a letter he sent April 17 to members of the Grove Avenue school community Fogler noted Hill’s “beauty, intelligence, poise, leadership, and other wonderful traits.”
“We offer our prayers, spiritual support, and love to her parents and relatives as they go through this tragedy,” Fogler wrote. “Any parent would have counted it a privilege to have called her their daughter.”
Hill was the only child of Alan and Tammy Hill of Glen Allen, Va.
Martha Isaacs, a former principal of the school, said. “She was a wonderful young lady, very bright, very gifted. She had a close relationship with her parents and her fellow students here. She was very spiritually mature. She loved the Lord and was just an asset to our school.”
Mark Becton, pastor of Grove Avenue Baptist Church, told The Washington Post the school plans to retire Hill’s jersey from her time on the school’s volleyball team. She was honored last year as sportswoman of the year, he said. Hill was interested in biology and she was an excellent piano player.
Brian BluhmBrian Bluhm, 25, was just weeks away from graduating with a master’s degree in water resources after also earning an undergraduate degree in civil engineering at Virginia Tech. He was attending a class in advanced hydrology in Norris Hall when he was killed, The Post reported.
Bluhm was active in the Baptist Campus Ministry at Virginia Tech, and he was known for his sense of humor and his exceptional enthusiasm for the Hokies and the Detroit Tigers baseball team. His passion for the Tigers led Bluhm to help found a blog dedicated to the team, Motownsports.com. As a tribute to the Tigers fan, a Detroit announcer asked for a moment of silence for the shooting victims – including Bluhm – before the team’s game against the Kansas City Royals Tuesday night.
One of the ways the BCM students have shared their faith since the shootings is by wearing Detroit Tigers baseball hats.
“We had someone donate a lot of Detroit Tigers hats, and our students have been wearing those around on campus as a statement of their loss and also to tell about Brian’s life and how he loved the Tigers and loved God, and to say, ‘It’s our faith in God that’s getting us through things right now,'” said Darrell Cook, BCM director.
More than 60 BCM students traveled to Winchester, Va., where a funeral for Bluhm was held April 24, at Fellowship Baptist Church. And there were Tigers hats all over the place at the funeral, Cook said.
During the service, the family provided a time for people to tell about what Bluhm’s life meant to them. “Students just kept coming one after the other, sharing things of the authentic and kind person that he was – one of the best listeners and someone that when he was asking somebody, ‘How are you?’ he was a guy that really meant it and really cared about the answer you gave,” Cook said. “So the way Christ came out through Brian’s life was a pretty clear part of the service.”
Nicole WhiteNicole White was a strong Southern Baptist who had a passion for evangelism and helping other people, her youth pastor said after news broke that she was among the 32 victims of the Virginia Tech shootings.
White, 18, a junior majoring in international studies and a member of Nansemond River Baptist Church, Suffolk, Va., was scheduled to be in a German class in Norris Hall at the time the gunman opened fire.
“I’ve known her for about 10 years,” said Gary Vaughn, the associate pastor for students at Nansemond Baptist. “She was a girl who had great relationships. She loved people, and people loved her. She was part of a FAITH evangelism team, and evangelism was a passion of hers – defending and sharing her faith.”
Vaughn said White wasn’t someone who judged people by their appearances but instead wanted to take the time to get to know them. Consequently, she had a variety of friends, he said.
“In that process, she was very faithful in sharing about her relationship with Christ. That’s probably the biggest thing about her,” Vaughn said.
In high school, White served as an EMT with the Smithfield Volunteer Rescue Squad and was a lifeguard and swimming instructor at the local YMCA. In Blacksburg, she volunteered at an animal shelter and at a battered women’s shelter.
Jarrett LaneJarrett Lane belonged to First Baptist Church in Narrows, Va.
“He was here every Sunday. This past Sunday he even took up the collection. He was one of the ushers,” John Sheally, church secretary at First Baptist Narrows, told Baptist Press.
Lane, Sheally said, grew up in the church, and other members of his family including his mother and grandmother were faithful members of the church too. He said the congregation averages 100 to 125 each Sunday, so it’s a close-knit church.
“All of us are still deeply stunned and in shock over the loss of our son, grandson and brother, Jarrett Lee Lane,” his family said. “He was a fun-loving young man, full of spirit. He had a caring heart and was a friend to everybody he met, both at Virginia Tech and here in Narrows. We are leaning on God’s grace in these trying hours and appreciate all the prayers, expressions of sympathy, and thoughts.”
Lane was a senior civil engineering major at Virginia Tech, and had been accepted into a graduate program at the University of Florida, where he was granted a full ride and a graduate assistantship to study coastal engineering.
“Here I am, 42 years old, and I haven’t accomplished near the things that he has in just 22 years of life,” Robert Stump, principal of Narrows High School, told the Baltimore Sun.
The valedictorian of his high school class, Lane was a noted athlete. Stump, who had known Lane well, made a commemorative display in the high school lobby of sports jerseys, yearbooks and a trombone Lane had played in the band.
Despite the accolades for his high school successes, Lane wrote on his Facebook.com page that he was foremost a Christian. Others agreed.
“What summed him up best to me was that he was a good Christian,” Jenny Martin, a Narrows resident, told the Sun. “He wasn’t afraid to declare his faith in front of his friends. Do you know how special it is to find a young person like that? “
Lauren McClainLauren McCain, a freshman international studies major at Virginia Tech, was so loved at her church, Restoration Church Phoebus Baptist in Hampton, that family and friends began gathering there to wait for news about her Monday night. The group learn on Tuesday afternoon that she was among those who had been killed.
On her MySpace.com page, McCain had written about the certainty of her faith.
“I don’t have to argue religion, philosophy or historical evidence,” she wrote, according to the Daily Press, “because I KNOW him.”
In a birthday card to a friend recently, McCain had mentioned how wonderful she thought heaven would be, the newspaper said.
“Easter Sunday was the last day I had with Lauren,” Cordell Woods, an uncle who was at the church, told the Daily Press. “She was filled with a purpose. There was nothing negative in her life. And that’s the way I want to remember her.”
McCain’s parents released a statement which said, “We grieve over our great loss, and yet find peace in the reality that God is worthy of our trust and we are sustained in our sorrow by that truth.”
David Bounds, pastor of Restoration Church Phoebus Baptist, said, “She loved the Lord with all of her heart, and it showed. She just didn’t talk about the Lord; she lived him.”
Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine declared April 20 a statewide day of mourning for the 32 shooting victims, and bells tolled 32 times across the Virginia Tech campus in their honor as a moment of silence was observed.